Latin American Leftists to trade in new virtual 'sucre' currency

Members of Latin America's Leftist bloc will trade amongst themselves using a new currency called the "sucre" in the new year, the group said over the weekend.

6:14PM GMT 13 Dec 2009

No sucres will be printed or coined, but the virtual currency will be used to manage debts between the nine nations in a move to reduce reliance on the US dollar.

Cuba already signed an agreement on Saturday to pay for a shipment of Venezuelan rice in sucres, according to Rogelio Sierra, the island's deputy foreign minister. He declined to say what the shipment was worth.

That agreement was made as it emerged that cash-strapped Cuba has fallen behind on its debt to nations and multinational corporations amid the global recession.

The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas trade group was holding a two-day summit over the weekend in the Cuban capital.

The group was formed by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez as an alternative to US-backed free-trade consortia. Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, Antigua and Barbuda, San Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica.

Honduras remains part of the bloc despite a June coup that toppled Leftist President Manuel Zelaya. Mr Zelaya's deposed foreign minister attended the summit, but the acting government in Honduras will almost certainly not abide by any agreements made.

Mr Chavez was greeted Friday as he arrived in Cuba by President Raul Castro. Cuba and Venezuela signed "agreements of cooperation" on 285 bilateral projects in 2010 totalling nearly US$3.2 billion, according to Rafael Ramirez, Venezuela's energy minister. He provided no details on what those agreements entailed, however.

On Saturday, Mr Castro said the cooperation between the countries will allow them to "alleviate the negative impact of the current world economic crisis."